Recent kwiples

Wednesday 20th of February 2019

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Abortion [I]t is notable that banning late-term abortion would have little impact on the roughly 630,000 abortions carried out in America each year. Only about 1% take place after 21 weeks. And they are often a response to the sorts of exceptional circumstances, including threats to the mother's life or abnormalities in the fetus, that existing state-level bans on late-term abortion, as well as public opinion, tend to allow. The main reason Mr Trump is harping on the issue is political. Economist, February 16, 22019 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Aging This year, there will be more people over 65 than under five for the first time in human history. By 2060, the number of Americans over 65 will double, to 98m, while in Japan, 40% of the population will be 65 or older. There will not be enough younger people to look after so many, unless robots help (and probably an influx of migrants is permitted, too). Economist, February 16, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
The American West The physicality of the west would count for little if it did not also foster a distinct cast of mind. Janan Ganesh, Financial Times, February 16/17, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Cocks of the walk say Chris, you and I are so smart that we can leave the victory party two hours early and do the transition ourselves. Donald Trump to Chris Christie, his transition team leader © 2019 Kwiple.com
Conservatives Maybe you do not care about the future of the Republican Party. You should. Conservatives will always be with us. If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy. David Frum, Trumpocracy © 2018 Kwiple.com
Corruption A rule-of-law state can withstand a certain amount of official corruption. What it cannot withstand is a culture of impunity. So long as officials believe that corruption will usually be detected – and if detected, then certainly punished – for just that long they will believe that corruption is wrong. It is for this reason that corrupt regimes swiftly evolve toward authoritarianism, and authoritarian regimes toward corruption. David Frum, Trumpocracy © 2019 Kwiple.com
Dead-in-the-heads say I didn't need to do this. Donald Trump, declaring a national emergency because he didn't get the funding he wanted to fulfill his campaign promise to build a southern border wall © 2019 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Count votes in Congress by: 1. Calculating a Member's Proportional Vote (MPV) for each voting member, as follows: MPV = SPNP / NLRS where: SPNP = State's Percentage of the National Population NLRS = Number of Legislators Representing the State (in that legislature) 2. Totaling “yes” MPVs and “no” MPVs 3. Passing if total MPV is more than 50 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Enhance America's infrastructure (1) without privatizing it (2) without giving tax breaks and windfall profits to private investors (3) without issuing government bonds, which increases government debt and income inequality resulting from paying interest to bondholders by (1) contracting to build or improve assets of long-lasting public value, like roads, schools, parks, housing (2) printing money and paying for work as it's done © 2017 Kwiple.com
Making money the new-fashioned way Selling bulletproof backpacks for schoolkids © 2019 Kwiple.com
Post-2018 Senate shituation 15 states (Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming) 2018 population: 40,056,961 Senators: 30 Republicans 1 Senator per 1,335,232 people — 1 state (California) 2018 population: 39,776,830 Senators: 2 Democrats 1 Senator per 19,888,415 people 19,888,415 / 1,335,232 = 16, therefore: average 15er's vote is worth 16 times a Californian's, a Californian's vote is worth 6% of an average 15er's — 1 state (Wyoming) 2018 population = 573,720, therefore: 1 Senator per 286,860 Wyomians, a Wyomian's vote is worth 69 times a Californian's, a Californian's vote is worth 1.4% of a Wyomian's © 2016 Kwiple.com
Snapshot The president's primary problem as a leader is not that he is impetuous, brash or naive. It's not that he is inexperienced, crude, an outsider. It is that he is weak and sniveling. It is that he undermines himself almost daily by ignoring traditional norms and forms of American masculinity. He's not strong and self-controlled, not cool and tough, not low-keyed and determined: he's whiny, weepy and self-pitying. He throws himself, sobbing, on the body politic. He's a drama queen. Donald Trump portrayed by Peggy Noonan © 2019 Kwiple.com
Snapshot I wouldn't believe Donald Trump if his tongue were notarized. Donald Trump portrayed by Alair Townsend, former New York City deputy mayor © 2019 Kwiple.com
Socialism The businessmen believe that they are defending free enterprise when they declaim that business is not concerned “merely” with profit but also with “social” ends; that business has a “social conscience” and takes seriously its responsibility for providing employment, eliminating discrimination, avoiding pollution and whatever else may be the catchwords of the contemporary crop of reformers. In fact they are – or would be if they or anyone else took them seriously – preaching pure and unadulterated socialism. Milton Friedman © 2019 Kwiple.com
Southern border wall Mr. President, steel slats are not the metal bars we want you behind. Stephen Colbert, The Late Show, January 9, 2019, after Trump claimed that, at the request of Democrats, the wall would be a barrier of steel slats instead of the concrete wall he promised  © 2019 Kwiple.com
State of the union The 23-page document, which also features an appearance by Richard Nixon, confirms the old truism that, sooner or later, everything in American life comes back to The Godfather. Financial Times, January 20, 2019, on Mueller's indictment of Roger Stone, which revealed that Stone encouraged a witness to “do a Frank Pentangeli” like the character in The Godfather II who provided a sworn affidavit and then stymied Senate investigators by telling them “I don't know nothing about that!” © 2019 Kwiple.com
Surely you jest Man suing his parents for being born without consent tells This Morning viewers that being born is ‘kidnap and slavery’ Headline, The Sun, February 14, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Surely you jest United Airlines Put Out a Cookbook so You Can Eat Airplane Food at Home headline, Travel+Leisure magazine, December 29, 2018 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Trumpism And he came to see there was nothing arbitrary or capricious about the Trump administration's attitude toward public data. Under each act of data suppression usually lay a narrow commercial motive: a gun lobbyist, a coal company, a poultry company. “The NOAA webpage used to have a link to weather forecasts,” he said. “It was highly popular. I saw it had been buried. And I asked: Now why would they bury that?” Then he realized: the man Trump nominated to run NOAA thought that people who wanted a weather forecast should have to pay him for it. There was a rift in American life that was now coursing through American government. It wasn't between Democrats and Republicans. It was between the people who were in it for the mission and the people who were in it for the money. Michael Lewis, The Fifth Risk © 2019 Kwiple.com
Trumpism The thing to fear from the Trump presidency is not the bold overthrow of the Constitution, but the stealthy paralysis of government; not the open defiance of law, but an accumulating subversion of norms; not the deployment of state power to intimidate dissidents, but the incitement of private violence to radicalize supporters. … Trump gambled that Americans resent each other's difference more than they cherish their shared democracy. So far, that gamble has paid off. David Frum, Trumpocracy  [2018] © 2019 Kwiple.com
Trumpism Trumpocracy as a system of power rests not on deregulation but on nonregulation, not on deconstructing the state but on breaking the state in order to plunder the state. David Frum, Trumpocracy © 2019 Kwiple.com 0
Trumpists say Follow the chain of command without exception. Submit yourselves, as the saying goes, to the authorities that have been placed above you. Trust your superiors, trust your orders, and you'll serve and lead well. Mike Pence, to the 2017 graduating class at the United States Naval Academy © 2019 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say I've seen this guy throw a dead spiral through a tire. I've seen him at Madison Square Garden with a topcoat on. He's standing in the key and he's hitting foul shots and swishing them, okay? He sinks three-foot putts.  Anthony Scaramucci © 2019 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say The main reason for President Trump to pardon Sheriff Joe [Arpaio] was fuck you, leftists. The new rules, bitches.  Kurt Schlichter, 6:43 PM – 25 Aug 2017 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say The news media in the West pose a far greater danger to Western civilization than Russia does. Dennis Prager, 10:55 AM – 14 Jul 2017 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Wealth inequality Having a wage but no wealth increasingly means settling for a lower standard of living. In recent decades and in rich countries the share of total income accruing to owners of capital (in the form of profits, rent and interest) has risen, while the share paid to labour (in the form of salaries and benefits) has dropped. This means the income of people with lots of capital will diverge from those who have none. Economist, February 16, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Wealth inequality  Where there is inequality of estates, there must be inequality of power. James Harrington, The Commonwealth of Oceana © 2019 Kwiple.com